1. Technical Field
This invention generally relates to virtual machines in a computing environment, and more specifically relates to placement of virtual machines on preferred physical hosts in a computing environment based on one or more preferred host identifiers unique to a virtual machine or group of virtual machines.
2. Background Art
Cloud computing is a common expression for distributed computing over a network and can also be used with reference to network-based services such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). IaaS is a cloud based service that provides physical processing resources to run virtual machines (VMs) as a guest for different customers. The virtual machine may host a user application or a server.
A computing environment, such as a cloud computing environment, may have a large number of physical machines that can each host one or more virtual machines. Prior art cloud management tools allow a system administrator to assist in determining a specific physical host in which to place or deploy a new virtual machine. After deployment, the cloud management tools may optimize the system by moving one or more virtual machines to a different physical host. The placement of the new virtual machine initially and during optimization may be determined by a placement policy selected by the system administrator.